Tuesday 7 November 2000 06.14 EST
First published on Tuesday 7 November 2000 06.14 EST

Al Gore, vice-president since 1993, was born to high office. "We trained him for it", his father, also Al Gore and a leading Democrat senator, once said.

Educated with the nation's elite in Washington - but brought up outside term-time on the family's farm in Carthage, Tennessee - Gore went to Harvard university at a time when student life was in the throes of '60s counter-culture and protests against the Vietnam war. Unlike Bill Clinton, he did inhale.

He also volunteered for the draft to Vietnam in 1970, although both he and his father opposed the war. In south-east Asia, he served as a journalist - though rarely under fire, as rivals have pointed out.

On his return he worked as a journalist before standing for - and winning - a seat in the House of Representatives. He made a name as a defender of consumer rights and as something of a moral conservative. He voted against allowing abortion and spoke critically about homosexuality.

In 1984 he stepped up his career, entering the senate as one of Tennessee's two representatives. He became fascinated by a string of issues then outside the mainstream, including the environment and information technology.

After an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, he wrote a best-selling book on environmentalism, Earth in the Balance. The book helped make his name - but also trapped him in the public mind as a politician obsessed with detail, and opposed to much that ordinary Americans hold dear - not least, cheap petrol.

Nonetheless, Bill Clinton chose him as his running mate in 1992 and Al Gore was sworn in as vice-president a year later. He has had a big stake in the Clinton presidency, with greater access to power than most of his predecessors.

That has brought advantages - but also damaged Gore's reputation, not least his refusal to condemn Bill Clinton after the Lewinsky affair.

He also became involved in a scandal over fundraising ahead of Bill Clinton's re-election in 1996: rumours about what exactly went on have never gone away.

Politically, Al Gore was a liberal reformer, campaigning against big government and supporting Bill Clinton in his decision to support Republican plans to cut taxes.

That upset some traditional Democrats, many of whom backed Bill Bradley for the presidential nomination in primary races earlier this year. Gore won though - and has been neck and neck in the polls with his rival George Bush ever since.

Even if he wins, the US will not love him as it has Bill Clinton. Republicans have made hay with Gore's leaden public character, and his boastful claims to have helped "invent" the internet.

In office, he would have to learn how to speak to the nation in a way it can understand and trust.